A/HRC/40/60 including human rights defenders (para. 12). States parties are called on to encourage the media to eliminate discrimination against women, including the harmful and stereotypical portrayal of women or specific groups of women, such as women human rights defenders, from their activities (para. 30). 18. In its general comment No. 20 (2016) on the implementation of the rights of the child during adolescence, the Committee on the Rights of the Child states that States should guarantee that adolescents’ right to freedom of association and peaceful assembly in all its forms is fully respected, consistent with the restrictions delineated in article 15 (2) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, including through the provision of safe spaces for both girls and boys. Measures should also be introduced to protect adolescent human rights defenders, particularly girls, who often face gender-specific threats and violence (para. 45). On 28 September 2018, the Committee held a day of general discussion on protecting and empowering children as human rights defenders. 19. States have an obligation to protect women human rights defenders and ensure a safe and enabling environment for actions related to human rights. On 18 December 2013, the General Assembly adopted by consensus a landmark resolution on women human rights defenders, resolution 68/181, in which it called on States to, inter alia, protect women human rights defenders, respect and support their activities, condemn and prevent human rights violations and abuses as well as violence and discrimination against them, create a safe and enabling environment for the defence of human rights with a gender perspective, ensure that they can engage in peaceful protests, ensure that the promotion and protection of human rights are not criminalized and refrain from any act of intimidation or reprisal against them or their family members and associates for their cooperation with international institutions. 20. In its resolution 72/247, adopted in December 2017 in advance of the twentieth anniversary of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders in 2018, the General Assembly continued to express particular concern about systemic and structural discrimination and violence faced by women human rights defenders of all ages, and reiterated its strong call upon States to take appropriate, robust and practical steps to protect women human rights defenders and to integrate a gender perspective into their efforts to create a safe and enabling environment for the defence of human rights, as called for by the Assembly in its resolution 68/181. 21. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has adopted several resolutions recognizing the threats and attacks against women human rights defenders in Africa and the need for measures to protect them and promote their work, 3 including the Resolution on Measures to Protect and Promote the Work of Women Human Rights Defenders of 2016. 4 The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has also called frequently on States in the region to take urgent measures to protect women human rights defenders. 22. In a statement given on International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, 29 November 2018, by the Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, women human rights defenders were recognized as key to the realization of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. They also play a critical role in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, through which Governments have committed to achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls (Sustainable Development Goal 5) and other gender-specific targets. 3 4 Including ACHPR/Res.376 (LX) 2017, ACHPR/Res.345 (LVIII) 2016 and ACHPR/Res.245 (LIV) 13. ACHPR/Res.336 (EXT.OS/XIX) 2016. 5